This arise from the French socialist and communist literature. The german “True” socialists, the revolutionary Proletariat and with the help of the over concentration of capital, they threaten and abolish the “industrial and political supremacy” of the Bourgeoisie (The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Chapter III, paragraph 15, page 31). The second category is the bourgeois or conservative socialism. This ideology comes from the awareness of the bourgeoisie such as humanitarians, economists or improvers which fight against the proletariat suffering and inequalities. They try to attempt to mitigate the injustices of the working class within society, by providing then the benefits they deserve, such as; “free trade, prison reform and protective duties” (The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Chapter III, paragraph 7, page 32).
The working class was against big business, corruption, and poor working conditions. They favored politicians that had the same views as them and followed along with their potential policies. The main idea of the article is that the middle and lower class living in cities joined forces to advocate reform for working class
Thus, Wright stated that people can belong to more than a single category. He termed this case as contradictory class locations. According to him, there were four classes including those who owned large enterprises who were the capitalists, those who owned small businesses named as petty bourgeoisie, those employees who have power or authority over rest of the workers named as managers and those who worked as laborers classified as the workers. Dennis Gilbert and Joseph Kahl who were the sociologists developed a model based on the framework of Weber to define the structure of class in the United States and other few capitalist countries. Just 1% of the population is the capitalist class which comprises of heirs, investors etc.
“In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the Middle Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs; in almost all of these classes, again, subordinate gradations” (Manifesto, 1848). In the Communist manifesto, Marx discusses the class type of his time, bourgeois and proletariat. The bourgeois were the higher class who exploited the proletariats. They constantly strived to expand their power and wealth in society. The proletariat had no
This became significant because as the bourgeois started improving their machinery and producing more, they did not need skilled labor, and they could hire women and children for a lot less money. With this happening unemployment rose and wages fell, thus putting more people into poverty and starvation. This is similar to what happened in the French Revolution because the oppressed were extremely poor and did not have enough to eat. This caused a want for reform, and therefore, the same could happen between the bourgeois and the proletariats. In other words, the oppressed can only be oppressed for so long before a life or death challenge steps in, and they have to step up to the challenge.
Marx’s ideas on this exploitation refers to a feudalistic driven society, where the performance of labour is over and above what is needed to produce goods consumed by the labourer. An example to sustain his theory is of when the exploiter ends up with a surplus. The proletariat or working class is therefore not paid the full value of what she or he produces, the rest is the surplus value which is the capitalist’s profits, and according to Marx known as the ‘unpaid labour of the working class’. The bourgeoisie force down wages of the proletariat to increase their own profits and this creates a more direct conflict between the classes and gives rise to the development of class consciousness in the working class. The working class, through trade unions and other struggles becomes conscious of itself as an exploited class.
Although it could have been the other way around, but the proletariats helped shape the bourgeoisie class and made it to what it is today, kind of like how you use your fingers to help shape a perfect clay pot. The bourgeoisie are owners of social production or employers of wage labor. The proletarians helped shaped the bourgeoisie class when some other people were unhappy with their life and wanted more or they wanted to make a better living for themselves. So, they brought up their own business and did every single slimy, sleazy action they could to get to the top. Some bourgeoisie are very cunning and greedy.
Marx argues that due to division of labor and class struggle, “man comes to objectify himself through this mere one-dimension he has created and identifies with” (Marx p.475). The class struggle resulted from division of labor created an inequality where some will own the means of production, and the lower class who provides or sells their labor or “self” to survive working for those owners of means of product. This two groups are simply explained as bourgeoisies and proletariats by Marx. As the industrialization and society modernizes, the inequality will prevail observably. Marx argues that the proletariats will revolt against bourgeoisies and lead to the fall of capitalism and rise of communism.
Though the emperor was a grand position, he had no real authority, just a title. Shogun law described the classes more specifically to include more defined roles. Again, hierarchically, people were classified as daimyo, court nobility, samurai, priests, peasants, townsmen, outcasts, and non-persons who were categorized as prostitutes and beggars(1,355). A unique aspect of this class structure is that peasants are noticeably high on the list and merchants are very low. This is because in this society the peasants were recognized as valuable and necessary for the sustainability of the society.
This essay explains the concept of class struggle, bourgeoisie, proletariat (the classes that emerged during the industrialisation.) and alienation on the basis of Marx’s theory. And will also look at relevance of class in the post-industrial society. This essay also talks about how the movie The Bicycle Thief portrays the class struggle that took place and how the proletariats (the working class.) suffered in order to earn money and fulfil their daily needs.